Golden Globes nominations shut out female film directors — again

Tamara Jenkins, pictured with Paul Giamatti on the set of "Private Life," was left out of the Golden Globes' nominees for directing.

Tamara Jenkins, pictured with Paul Giamatti on the set of "Private Life," was left out of the Golden Globes' nominees for directing.

Ashley LeeLos Angeles Times

“And here are the all-male nominees.”

Natalie Portman made the condemning comment at the last Golden Globe Awards, when she was presenting the year’s contenders for director. Standing onstage in a black gown — the agreed-upon sign to show solidarity with sexual assault victims and raise awareness for the new gender parity initiative Time’s Up — the actress-turned-director drew attention to the award show’s historical omission of female filmmakers: Throughout its 75-year history, women have only been nominated for best director seven times.

However, the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. must be quite fine with its problematic behavior, as Thursday morning’s nomination announcement again did not include any female directors. Instead, this year’s nominees for director are Adam McKay (“Vice”), Alfonso Cuaron (“Roma”), Bradley Cooper (“A Star Is Born”), Peter Farrelly (“Green Book”) and Spike Lee (“BlacKkKlansman”).

Scott Green / Bleecker Street

(Scott Green / Bleecker Street)

This particular handful of helmers was selected by the HFPA despite the numerous women who have directed acclaimed movies this year, including Lynne Ramsay (“You Were Never Really Here”), Tamara Jenkins (“Private Life”), Debra Granik (“Leave No Trace”), Marielle Heller (“Can You Ever Forgive Me?”), Chloe Zhao (“The Rider”), Karyn Kusama (“Destroyer”) and Josie Rourke (“Mary Queen of Scots”), to name a few. (Three of them — Granik, Jenkins and Ramsay — were nominated for Spirit Awards this year.)

Likewise, this year’s nominated titles in the animation category are all directed by men. The only female-helmed film recognized in the nominations was Lebanon’s “Capernaum,” which is directed by Nadine Labaki.

The HFPA has a history of sexist snubs when it comes to the directing prize. Now in its 76th year, the group has only ever nominated five women for the honor: Barbra Streisand (“Yentl” and “The Prince of Tides”), Jane Campion (“The Piano”), Sofia Coppola (“Lost in Translation”), Ava DuVernay (“Selma”) and Kathryn Bigelow (“The Hurt Locker” and “Zero Dark Thirty”). Streisand is the only woman who took home the award — in 1984, for “Yentl.”

One might argue that women have been left out of the awards’ directing category because, well, women don’t direct enough movies — and that’s probably part of the problem too. In fact, the latest “Celluloid Ceiling” study, conducted annually by San Diego State University’s Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, looked at 2017’s top 250 highest-grossing domestic films and found that women directed 11% of them. That’s a notch of growth compared to 2016 (7%) but still the same as that of 2000.

And since 2019 is similarly packed with movies helmed by women, here’s hoping no one ever introduces the “all-male nominees” of the Golden Globes’ director category ever again. Well, after the next ceremony on Jan. 6, that is.